[thepunisher]

I have a rage too. Still take it with me on trips. But man, does it not cut it in the distortion range. What settings are you using? I might be able to get a little bit more out of it for you.
True story. I had gotten a squire strat and that little rage when I started out. all I wanted to do was play some fucking death metal, same as you. So what do I do? Go out and buy a dod death metal pedal from musicians friend a couple of weeks later. Spent fifty dollars at musicians friend, never playing the thing before hand or hearing what it sounded like.
And when it comes, I turn all the gain all the way up on it and the amp, and rattle out some sloppy power chords. Man I thought I rocked for fifteen minutes. Then my little brother came in and started to play it. “Damn dude, you are making it sound like a fuckin’ fart. Lemme see that.” And I couldn’t make it sound any better. It was fuzzy, it was gritty, it sounded shitty. And the squealing feedback didn’t help matters. 2 months later when it broke, I didn’t care. In fact, I fixed it two years ago, and I haven’t touched the thing more than three times since then.
I got a small digitech multieffects unit, the rp 150 I think. I used that for four months, when I bought the gnx 4. gave the rp to a friend, and I haven’t missed it. It showed me however, that I didn’t want to buy shitloads of pedals, and that in an amp, I would rather have a good clean than a distortion, as clean is the staple. If you have a good clean, even the rage’s clean, you can build over that, and create the sound you want. The neat thing about the multieffects is that you can try things out. some also have amp emulations which you can play around with and tweak.
While I stand firmly behind what I said previously, Drew has an excellent point(kudos to Drew). i also agree with him about combos. And this is the perfect example of something you must do for yourself: choose what matters to you most.
I will be glad to talk to you through any issues you encounter, and even offer an opinion. However, I can not decide for you.

The noise can be solved with a noise gate, and majorly reduced by better cable. Noise gates are usually built into a multi effects unit, and since your amp is so low powered, it should be sufficient until you get an upgrade amp.
As for cables, I always recommend two: Planet Waves and Monster. You are going to be surprised by the price, but they are guaranteed for life. Meaning if they break, you get a replacement, free of charge to you. And It will ultimately save you money.

I personally would advise against buying an amp for now. just play around.
high or hot output pickups distort much better, but low outputs have advantages too.

Feel free to ask any other questions, and I will try to work with you and help you solve them.

[Brett89]

Thanks again, it helps much... my friends how play on guitar doesnt care about their gear so they can't help me.

Well I set my 15W Rage 158 in this way: Pregain 10, Postgain 3, becouse I cant play too loud at home... to be honest I dont know what te hell is this post and pregain stuff... (I only saw an amp before with a Gain and a Volume knob, so I dont know what does it mean) Low 6, Mid 7, High 7....
thats all, a try dont EQ to much my amp but it sound a bit lifles if everything is on 5.

[thepunisher]

dude, knock the pregain up to 7-10, and the post between 1 and 5
the way you have it set is on the bluesy tone. this should kick some more drive into your output.
low- 4-7 mid 3-5 treble 6-8 and vintage.

oh yea, and if the channel switch( the first one) isnt down, it will remain on the clean channel.

what guitar are you using?

[Brett89]

Yamaha Pacifica 112 : Alder body, rosewood fingerboard, tuned to B with 56-12 string set.

[thepunisher]

ah... yes, i advise a new guitar as a first.
did the settings work?

[Brett89]

Well... no...

First I went to a guitarshop and I tell them to tune down my guitar to B, and setup the vintagtremolo on it... It was ridiculously expansive but I thought thet "hey, but they are craftman, they will set up the guitar perfectly"...

When they gived back to me... they only put a 12'set on it end I dont know why... a 13'set would be better... so the strings are too floppy, and they dont set up a vintagestyle trem on it so its hard to use it...END they even scratched they headstock... so it was cool...and I can't bring it back... I dont tell you why, it would be too long but it was a bit my fault.

So, I was thinking about to put 13' set on it but I think thet the nut is too small for that... but if I bring it to a "craftman" to make it fit, it would cost to much money for a so cheap guitar... so, I will survive with this shit action until I buy a new guitar...

[thepunisher]

was the "well... no" about the settings or about me saying buy a new guitar before all of the rest of the stuff?

[Brett89]

"Well...no" is the awnser for the quastion "did the settings working?" . . . and I write it that no, the 12's set is to small for B tuning... or you mean that your amp settings are working on my amp? Yes, it work perfectly... sorry If I don't understand 100%-ly what are you asking... I'm not a pro in english :l

[Ibycan7]

I just have a question. why do you want to tune your guitar to B? to tell you the truth my guess is that the guitar is going to play like crap wheather you have 13 or 12 in there. those guitars are not designed to play that low because of the scale size of the neck. that's why there are baritone guitar. I'm not trying to put down what you are doing but the more information you give us, the better we can help.

[Brett89]

Originally Posted by Ibycan7

I just have a question. why do you want to tune your guitar to B? to tell you the truth my guess is that the guitar is going to play like crap wheather you have 13 or 12 in there. those guitars are not designed to play that low because of the scale size of the neck. that's why there are baritone guitar. I'm not trying to put down what you are doing but the more information you give us, the better we can help.

Well its true... that this guitar is not designed to be downtuned, but it doesn't sound shit becouse its got a short neck scale... its got a 25'5 neck, and the 7string ibanez necks are also 25'5 long... are am I wrong?